Marauders & Mistletoe
by juxtaposed
Summary: Sirius. Remus. James. Lily. Snowball fights. Hot chocolate. Whipped cream. Pure Christmas fluff. My first HP fic. Oneshot. Complete.


Marauders & Mistletoe. 

Sirius. Remus. James. Lily. Snowball fights. Hot chocolate. Whipped cream. Pure Christmas fluff.

 "Christmas is coming, ba da da da dum…" a tall, good-looking young man burst out spontaneously into what his two friends, who jumped up in fright, wands at the ready, _presumed_ was a song of sorts, but held no real tune, and much to their chagrin, was terribly off-key.

"Sirius!" one of them yelped, clapping his hands over his ears, and glowering at the first boy with intense chocolate eyes. 

The first boy looked at him in surprise, then, running his hand through his long, thick black hair, pushing it away from his piercing blue eyes, cocked his head innocently. "Yes, Remus?"

"If you must persist in singing, could you at least _try_ to stay in tune?" the young man with golden-brown hair that fell neatly away from his handsome face, sighed heavily as he regarded Sirius. "You sound worse than I do on a full moon," he added dryly.

Sirius apparently took great offense to that as a scowl set across his striking features. "You're kidding me, right, Moony?" He put on a pout. "You're just trying to hurt lil ol' Sirius…just being a big old meanie…trying to – "

His rambling was cut short by the third of the boys, a messy raven-haired one with rich hazel eyes. "Shut it, Sirius."

Sirius pouted even more, clutching his hands to his heart. "That hurt me, James." He feigned having to wipe away tears, and making his voice tremble, continued. "That really hurt."

James rolled his eyes at Remus, who just shook his head. "Hey, he's _your_ best friend, not mine," Remus said quickly, chuckling as he did so. They were all best friends, of course, but James and Sirius were especially close, having grown up like brothers together. Remus understood this, and never really felt any jealousy about their bond, as they always included him in everything. He did, however, enjoy using it for purposes such as this. Absolving himself of any responsibility whenever either one of them fell, as they so often did, into uncontrollable insanity. 

James mock-scowled at Remus, who was smiling openly at him. "Wipe that grin off your face, Rem." When that didn't happen, he grumbled. "Why do _I_ have to be the one to…to…_sanitize_ him?!"

Remus burst into laughter at James' choice of words. "Like I said…"

"Oh, you know full well that that's a load of dung bombs," James interrupted him.

Remus shrugged easily, still chuckling. "But its ever so convenient. And by the way, James, I don't think the word you were looking for was _sanitize_." 

Meanwhile, Sirius was on a roll, prattling on about how James and Remus didn't love him, how he was a sad lonely outcast among his own best friends, how betrayed and utterly, devastatingly hurt he felt…until he realized that his two best friends really were ignoring him, more or less. "Hey!" he barked. Remus and James spun to face him, as he crossed his arms in indignation. "I'm whining here! You're supposed to listen to me!"

"Why? In Merlin's name, _why_?" Remus stared in amusement at his decidedly insane friend.

Sirius choked. "Why?" he sputtered. "In Merlin's name…_why_?"

"I believe those were _my_ words," Remus said casually. Sirius blinked, opening and closing his mouth soundlessly a few times. 

"Why?" Sirius burst out again. "B-because! That's why!"

"Sirius Black, everybody," James gestured to his best friend with a large flourish of his arms. "Hogwart's star debater!"

He and Remus began to fall into fits of laughter again, while many unrepeatable words spilt from Sirius' mouth as he threw himself down into the armchairs. "Watch the language, Padfoot," Remus said warningly. Then to James, he remarked, "Huh. Perhaps you ought to sanitize him after all."

A pillow caught him in the head. Courtesy of one Sirius Black. "I heard that. And by the way, you're supposed to listen to me whine because that's how it all works!"

"How all _what_ works?" James blinked at him. 

"Our friendship! This group! The Marauders!" Remus and James exchanged glances. Sirius was definitely insane. But at least he was entertaining. "You see, our dear Mr. Lupin here, our dear Moony," he gestured to Remus. "is our brains."

"Hey!" James objected. "I'm at the top of the year too, you know! And for that matter, so are you!"

Sirius waved a dismissive hand. "Yes, yes, I'm getting to you. Hang on a bit, will you, Prongs? Anyway, Remus is the one with all the wisdom. You, my dear James Potter, are the enigma. The one people admire and seek out."

"Enigma?" repeated James. He exchanged another wry look with Remus. "I'm surprised he didn't call that for himself."

"Oh, no, you see, I, Sirius Black, am the looks, the charm, and the charisma of the group. The one everybody loves."

"Ah, but of course." Remus said dryly. "And tell me, dear looks, charm and charisma –" 

"You forgot 'the one everybody loves'," Sirius interrupted breezily. Remus rolled his dark eyes and James snorted. 

"Yes, well, not _every_body at the moment. How does that relate to me having to put up with your rants?"

"How does it relate?" Sirius stared at him as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Which, Remus reasoned, would be to him. However, Sirius-logic wasn't quite compatible with regular logic.

"You keep repeating whatever I'm saying, are you aware of that?"

Sirius ignored him. "It relates! Because!"

"Oh, there's that all-enlightening explanation again," James murmured. "Padfoot, mate, forget about it. We just wanted you to…to…" he turned to Remus, a frown on his handsome face. "What started this all again?"

"Sirius singing – "

At that moment Sirius began yodeling out another…original…composition. "Christmas is near, yes I can hear, we'll drink Butterbeer, be drunk for a year, and shed lots of tears, get kicked in the rear, by an angry deer, then, uh, cut off our ears, it'll bring lots of cheer, no need to fear…" he faltered for a brief moment then quickly regained composure.  

Suddenly, the door burst open, and a frantic girl with long red hair and wide emerald eyes darted in. "What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, Lily," Remus told her. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh," she said. "Well, I heard the most horrible _noise_…I thought someone was dying or something in here…" She trailed off as James and Remus succumbed to their mirth again while Sirius cast her a very dark look. "Um, am I missing something?"

"Nothing, nothing at all, Lils." James managed to choke out through his laughter. "But we love you even more now."

"Yes, thank you, Lil, for shutting Sirius up," Remus nodded. Lily blinked at the both of them, then glanced at the extremely disgruntled Sirius. 

"He was trying to sing," James explained. Lily's face dawned with comprehension.

"Oh, was _that_ the awful noise I heard?"

The boy in question straightened himself up, squaring his shoulders and thrust his chin out. "I'll have you know, my dear Miss Evans, that I was indeed singing, and rather well too. These two just don't appreciate my operatic voice," he sniffed absurdly. 

Lily was now stifling giggles. "More like in need of operation. Honestly, Siri, I thought you were a banshee or something." Sirius stuck his tongue out at her, an act which she promptly returned. "Why were you attempting to sing anyway?"

"Oh, no, don't ask him a question – "

"Lily, no!"

James and Remus hastily tried to stop the girl, but it was too late. The question had been posed. Lily looked in puzzlement at them. "What? I don't underst – "

"Because!" Sirius declared triumphantly. Then with a big grin of satisfaction, he leaned back with his arms folded, as if he had just solved a Life Mystery. 

"Because what?" Lily asked, staring blankly at Sirius, again noticing too late the panicked head-and-arm-shakings from the other two boys. "Uh, you know what? I don't want to know after all," she quickly cut Sirius off from a response. "I, uh…I…get it. _Because_." She ad-libbed, with the help of Remus and James' frantic gestures.

Sirius grinned. "Ah, so you _are _smart, Lily!" He turned, triumphantly, to his two best friends. "You see? Evans got it! You two are just prats."

Lily quickly repressed a bubble of laughter that threatened to explode upon seeing James and Remus throw Sirius murderous looks. "I think I'll go now." She turned to leave. "Hey, I'm going to take a walk round the garden…anyone interested?" Her gaze lingered a little longer on James, who quickly nodded. Sirius and Remus exchanged looks, then loudly declined, earning them a grin from James. "Okay, lets be going, then," she said as she walked to the door, James on her heels. She paused at the doorway and turned. "See you boys."

"Lily, wait!" Sirius cried out. She stared at him. "You're standing under mistletoe!" he crowed happily. Remus looked at the doorway and found he was right. He cast a glance at James, who looked thrilled, but was still blushing at the insinuated prospect. Lily looked up, and a deep blush rose to her cheeks. 

"And what do you propose I do, Siri? Since there are three of you and one of me?"

"Hey, you're a poet! And well, while I do have to say that you are an extremely attractive lady…" James shot him a death glare. "James might very well throttle me if I worked my ol' Black charm on you. So Remus and I will be perfect gentlemen and leave the dirty work of kissing you – " he got two dagger glares and a smack on his head for that one, "- to Prongs."

Lily eyed James nervously as he moved closer. She knew he had a massive crush on her, but she honestly didn't know what to make of it. They had been long-term rivals until recently, when an unexpected event had brought her very close to the three of them. She didn't loathe him anymore, in fact now that she knew him well, found him rather – very – attractive, with his unkempt black hair and sparkling eyes and winning smile…plus he really was a nice guy, smart, funny, caring, polite…but could she really do just fall for him, she wasn't sure…even with those wonderfully strong arms holding her gently as his marvelously inviting lips pressed softly against hers while those thoughts spun in her head…he was kissing her! It took a long moment to register, and by that time, she was already kissing back, guided by a spark of chemistry and well…_rightness_ there had been, the instant his lips touched hers. But then he pulled away, and she was disappointed by how short the kiss was. She was, however, impressed by his extremely disciplined, extremely gentlemanly behaviour that had kept the kiss chaste and sweet.

Her deep green eyes locked onto his hazel ones, which seemed to smile, and at the same time hold a world of meaning and emotion. He smiled a little at her. "Let's go for that walk, shall we?" Lily could only nod.  His hand brushed her back lightly as he walked with her out of the room, and she felt a jolt. Perhaps the whole idea of her and James wasn't so crazy after all. She'd mostly dismissed it because firstly, they'd been rivals and she'd despised him, and secondly, since they'd been friends she thought they were now too close to have anything more than a platonic relationship. But the feeling she got when he'd kissed her…_who knew James Potter was such a fantastic kisser?_

Sirius and Remus grinned in delight as they saw James finally kiss the girl of his dreams, albeit with the assistance of a plant. They were even more thrilled when they saw Lily's reaction…she had definitely been hit by the Potter spell. They were practically ecstatic to see James leading Lily out into the garden, and quickly rushed to a window to see the pair stroll companionably along the small path cleared from snow. Sirius turned to Remus with a glint in his eye.

"What do you say, Moony, to following our happy couple?" Remus gave him a look. "Think of it as…chaperoning. We never know what Prongs might do when he has her alone…"

Remus rolled his eyes. "No more than you would…I see what you mean." He chuckled as Sirius swatted at him.  "I could use a walk anyway. Lets go then."

"So, er…" James began nervously, his breath forming little clouds in front of his mouth. He looked at Lily. "You didn't mind too much about the kiss, did you, Lils?"

Lily found herself finding James Potter very adorable at that moment. He seemed to be very apprehensive, as if she had been thoroughly offended by him kissing her and was about to use an Unforgivable on him. Considering how cocky he usually was, his humility was a welcome surprise. Plus, he was biting on the edge of those very kissable lips, and she suddenly found that she had to restrain herself from just pulling him into a long, deep, passionate kiss…

"Lils?" James' voice broke into her reverie. He seemed even more concerned now. "You didn't really mind, did you?"

She smiled at him. James was floored by that smile and just how beautiful it was…then mentally shook himself with a reminder that she might very well follow that sweet smile up with a tight slap across his face for kissing her. Kissing her…kissing Lily Evans. It was the most amazing experience of James' life. He wished he had kissed her longer, more passionately, but he didn't know how she felt about him, and if she didn't see him in that way, he wasn't about to ruin their hard-earned friendship by abusing the mistletoe advantage. At least he had gotten to kiss her. That was a miracle in itself. Although he really did want it not to be a one-off thing. 

"Of course I didn't," Lily smiled warmly, and James' heart began to lift. Especially when she continued with, "I rather enjoyed it actually…why'd you stop so soon?"

Lily couldn't believe that had just come out of her mouth. She was never this direct! And dear Merlin, what if he didn't really feel that way about her anymore? She'd be humiliated for the rest of her life…but James didn't seem affronted. In fact, she could see a grin starting to form on his face. 

James wanted to explode with joy. Lily had liked it! And she had wanted more, too…an idea quickly popped into his mind, and he started to grin. "Well, we could always continue where we left off…" He hoped to Merlin she hadn't been kidding. He hoped she wouldn't turn him down. 

She turned to him, a smile on her lips. "Yeah?" 

"Yeah." James swallowed hard. Their flirting was outrageous, it was driving him nuts, and if they didn't kiss soon he was pretty sure he would collapse on the ground. Then Lily smiled even wider and nodded. James' grin threatened to split his face as he leaned in towards her.

When they were suddenly pelted with something wet and cold. Very cold. "Oi! Get a room!"

James groaned. "Sirius." He spun to look for his friend, and a snowball was suddenly attached to his face. "_Sirius!_" he repeated, this time in a yell. He heard mad laughter and saw two figures ducking behind a nearby tree. Suddenly, the two figures leapt into the air, yelping and running as little balls of snow followed them around, splattering onto them unforgivingly. James blinked in surprise, then saw Lily swishing her wand at the snow and the pair. He grinned. Now he knew for sure that Lily was the one for him. "Way to go, Lils," he started to say, when suddenly a pile of snow landed upon his head. He saw Remus waving his wand around while still running like a madman away from the snowballs.  "Remus! You'll pay for that one!" He whipped out his wand and immediately cast a spell that sent a giant snowball hurtling to his friends. Unfortunately, Sirius had apparently had the same idea, and with a tinge of horror, the four watched as the two barreled to each other.

"Uh-oh," Sirius muttered.

"Duck!" cried Lily, as the two collided in a flurry of snow that covered all of them completely in a white blanket. The force of the collision was so strong they had all been thrown back some, and were now all popping up from the thick snow like groundhogs. Lily giggled as she saw Sirius, desperately trying to get the snow out of his hair, muttering a few choice words as he did so. "Sirius! Watch your language!" she called out. "There's a lady here!"

"Well, actually, there are three…" he didn't get to finish his sentence as he was jumped by James and Remus. 

After some boisterous, but friendly, arguing, they decided to head back in. "I'm freezing," Remus shivered. Lily nodded, her teeth chattering. James wrapped an arm around her and she smiled at him gratefully and affectionately. "The minute I'm in there I'm lighting a big fire."

"I'm making hot chocolate," Lily said in response, to which the guys all beamed.

"I'm making an ice cream sundae!" Sirius exclaimed. The others shot him looks. "What?" he shrugged. "No better time than winter to have a good sundae…"

"Really?" James asked skeptically. "What about…oh say, I don't know…_summer? _"

They had reached the house, and Sirius ignored him, as he usually did when faced with logic, and bounded off into the house, where Remus did indeed conjure up a wonderful fire, and Lily went into the kitchen, with James quickly casting drying spells on them all, and settled in front of the fire, where Remus was already seated comfortably. In a while both Sirius and Lily came out, trails of goodies floating in the air behind them, then drifting down carefully onto the table. Lily began pouring out steaming hot mugs of wonderfully rich chocolate, while Sirius began spooning out ice cream into an enormous bowl. After about 8 scoops, he squeezed out half the contents of a fudge bottle over his ice cream, then grabbed a can of whipped cream. He shook it, then proceeded to aim it at his creation. As he shook it, though, an evil gleam entered his azure eyes and he suddenly flicked his wrist, causing the whipped cream to shoot through the air like a ribbon and land on James and Lily. 

"Sirius!" Lily cried, even as a smile tugged on her lips. James was laughing as he licked off the tip off his fingers. Then his gaze settled on Lily, who had a dab of whipped cream on her nose. Seemingly unable to control himself, he leaned over and kissed it off. Lily gaped at him.

"Its pretty good you know…" James laughed. Lily grinned. 

"I need to get me some of that loving," Sirius remarked, then glanced at Remus, who immediately shot him a steely glare.

"_No!_"

"Aw, come on, Rem…" Sirius mock pouted. He spritzed a tiny bit of cream onto his finger, then sucked it off. "Its good…" he said, waving the can tantalizingly in Remus' face.

"I don't care how good it is, I'm not kissing it off of you," Remus said flatly. James and Lily snorted as Sirius began moving closer and Remus began backing away. Then a sudden gleam flashed in his deep eyes and with a wink at James, he changed his direction and moved closer to Sirius. "Although if you insist…"

Sirius was immediately baffled and thrown. "Huh? What?"

"Well, Siri, if you want me to kiss you, I will…" Remus grinned, waggling his eyebrows and moving towards Sirius, who, much to his delight, had unconsciously been moving back. "Come here, Siri…"

"No!" Sirius exclaimed. The three of them burst into laughter at the expression of shock and horror on his face. It was then that Sirius realized Remus had been joking. "Why you…"

"Eat your ice cream, Siri." Remus grinned. 

He was replied with a splat of pistachio ice cream in his hair. 

~FIN~

Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing the characters for a little fun. I own none of them. 

AN: Okay, so this is my first HP fic. I'm anxious to know how it is, so please be kind and leave me a review or an email (juxtaposed15@hotmail.com), be it compliments or criticisms. I'm contemplating diving into the world of HP fics but I want to see how I do with this one-shot. If there are any questions I'll be happy to answer them.  Thanks for reading and have a good time preparing for Christmas! Hope Santa gets you what you want…but for now, if you review, I'll give you hot chocolate! :)


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